Defense contractors Boeing and Northrop Grumman are vying for a $40 billion contract to build the U.S. Air Force 179 new refueling tankers. Although Grumman has allied itself with Boeing rival European Aeronautic Defence & Space, "The contract is Boeing's to lose," reports Business Week.

U.S. foreclosures almost doubled in January. "Repossessions rose 90 percent to 45,327 last month from the same period a year ago," Bloomberg reports. The total number of foreclosure filings, which include both default and auction notices in addition to bank seizures, rose 57 percent.

Political fact-checking Web site Politifact evaluates the accuracy of Barack Obama's charges that Hillary Clinton flip-flopped on NAFTA: "We looked into Clinton's past remarks on NAFTA and concluded that she has changed her tune, from once speaking favorably about it to now saying the agreement needs 'fixing.'"

A new USA Today/Gallup Poll finds that Democratic voters think Sen. Barack Obama has a better chance of winning the general election than Hillary Clinton. According to the poll, 51 percent of respondents believed Obama could beat McCain, as opposed to 39 percent for Clinton.

NPR examines the health plans of the two Democratic candidates, writing, "Clinton's plan would require health insurance for everyone, while Obama's plan would not. She says his plan would leave 15 million people without insurance. He says hers would require wages to be garnished."

Political blog The Carpet Bagger Report comments on the recent row over a photograph of Barack Obama in traditional Kenyan garb. Although Clinton's camp is rumored to have circulated the photo, the CBR questions "whether the Clinton campaign would really be so desperate as to send this picture around to reporters."

A new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life shows that 28 percent of Americans "have left the faith of their childhood for another one," reports Time magazine. That number rises to 44 percent if those who have switched from one Protestant denomination to another are included.

The Senate is scheduled to vote today on a proposal that will order troop withdrawals within 120 days. But with the bill almost guaranteed to fail, many Democrats "want to focus more on the policy issues surrounding Iraq, including the preparedness of U.S. troops and reining in private contractors," Breitbart.com reports.

Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi has announced he will stay in office while being investigated on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, insurance fraud and extortion. His arraignment is scheduled for March 6.

“I'm not a politician, I'm a musician. I can't say anything about the country except that people are very friendly,” said Principal Contrabassist Eugene Levinson about the six-party talks that will now follow the standing ovation the New York Philharmonic received in North Korea.

Turkish forces continue their incursion into northern Iraq, reportedly closing in on one of the main bases of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Al Jazeera reports that the camp is "allegedly one of the main passages used by PKK fighters to infiltrate Turkish territory and launch attacks."

The Wall Street Journal comments on the New York Philharmonic's performance in North Korea, calling those that refuse to recognize the politics involved "naive ... In North Korea, the purpose of music, like that of all the arts, is to serve the state."

The Christian Science Monitor reports on the Pakistani military's failed attempts to capture Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah. Despite a 20,000 troop attack on Fazlullah's stronghold in the Swat Valley, he "and his commanders are still at large and still on the attack."

"A 'doomsday' seed vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars and natural disasters opened Tuesday deep within an Arctic mountain in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard," the International Herald Tribune reports.

A suicide bomb attack in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, killed Pakistani Army Surgeon Gen. Mushtaq Ahmad Baig and eight other people, including the attacker and five bystanders. The attack took place yesterday at 2:45 p.m. in a commercial neighborhood.

“TB drug assistance needs a frontal assault,” said Mario Raviglione, director of WHO’s Stop TB Department. “If countries and the international community fail to address it aggressively now we will lose this battle.”

New research published by a professor at the University of Hull in Britain suggests that popular antidepressants such as Prozac and Seroxat are scarcely more effective than placebos in treating depression.